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DANZIGER GALLERY/T.ADLER BOOKS
Marilyn Monroe: NYC, 1955
Photographs by Peter Mangone
Text by James Danziger.
In 1955, Peter Mangone was 14 years old--a skinny boy from the Bronx with a Marilyn Monroe fixation, like so many teenagers of his generation. What distinguished Mangone was that he got to meet his idol. For several months, he had played truant from school to stake out the Gladstone Hotel on Manhattan’s East 52nd Street, where the 29-year-old Monroe was staying after her unhappy divorce from Joe DiMaggio and her dismissal from the Twentieth-Century Fox studios. One morning, Mangone borrowed an eight-millimeter Kodak camera from his brother, headed down to the Gladstone and met Monroe as she was on her way out shopping with her friend Milton Greene. Mangone’s dream came true: she waved, winked and invited him along. Over the course of the afternoon, he filmed her intermittently, without sound, later developing the film and viewing it at home. When Mangone left home, the footage went missing, and was thought to be lost--until 2002, when his brother found it among their father’s possessions, virtually in mint condition. “It was like refinding my high school sweetheart,” he said. “She was just the way I remembered her.” This book of stills from Mangone’s five-minute movie shows the great screen siren in wonderful moments of unguardedness, against the Chevys and Checker cabs of 1950s midtown Manhattan. The great charm of Mangone’s images lies at the opposite end of familiar portraits by Cecil Beaton, Elliott Erwitt and co.: in his 14-year-old hands, through the grainy Kodak film, with its erratic lighting, Marilyn remains every inch the icon.
Featured image is reproduced from Marilyn Monroe: NYC, 1955.
He was 14, she was 29. He was a skinny, big-eared kid from the Bronx, she a blond bombshell from Hollywood. They said it would never work out, and sure enough, it didn’t. But for one brisk day in the spring of 1955, Peter Mangone and Marilyn Monroe were in love. And he has the film to prove it. Back in the 1950’s, Mr. Mangone, now 63 and living in Palm Beach, Fla., was such a Monroe fan that for several months he staked out the Gladstone Hotel on East 52nd Street, where she was recovering from her divorce from Joe DiMaggio and her summary dismissal from her contract at 20th Century Fox. On one of those truant mornings, Mr. Mangone took an eight-millimeter Kodak camera from his brother, headed downtown and met Monroe just as she was leaving the hotel for a therapeutic shopping spree. Then, just as in the movies, she waved, winked and asked him to come along. (From the introduction to Marilyn Monroe NYC, 1955 now in stock.) continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9 x 9 in. / 48 pgs / 30 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $35.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $40 ISBN: 9781935202349 PUBLISHER: Danziger Gallery/T.Adler Books AVAILABLE: 10/31/2012 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: *not available
Marilyn Monroe: NYC, 1955 Photographs by Peter Mangone
Published by Danziger Gallery/T.Adler Books. Text by James Danziger.
In 1955, Peter Mangone was 14 years old--a skinny boy from the Bronx with a Marilyn Monroe fixation, like so many teenagers of his generation. What distinguished Mangone was that he got to meet his idol. For several months, he had played truant from school to stake out the Gladstone Hotel on Manhattan’s East 52nd Street, where the 29-year-old Monroe was staying after her unhappy divorce from Joe DiMaggio and her dismissal from the Twentieth-Century Fox studios. One morning, Mangone borrowed an eight-millimeter Kodak camera from his brother, headed down to the Gladstone and met Monroe as she was on her way out shopping with her friend Milton Greene. Mangone’s dream came true: she waved, winked and invited him along. Over the course of the afternoon, he filmed her intermittently, without sound, later developing the film and viewing it at home. When Mangone left home, the footage went missing, and was thought to be lost--until 2002, when his brother found it among their father’s possessions, virtually in mint condition. “It was like refinding my high school sweetheart,” he said. “She was just the way I remembered her.” This book of stills from Mangone’s five-minute movie shows the great screen siren in wonderful moments of unguardedness, against the Chevys and Checker cabs of 1950s midtown Manhattan. The great charm of Mangone’s images lies at the opposite end of familiar portraits by Cecil Beaton, Elliott Erwitt and co.: in his 14-year-old hands, through the grainy Kodak film, with its erratic lighting, Marilyn remains every inch the icon.
